In 1987, the Big Mac jingle took hold of Australian culture through mass reaching comms and encouraged people to test their memory by reciting the jingle in-store for rewards. However, times have changed. Infinite scroll, media fragmentation and a generation of young people addicted to short, quick dopamine hits of content. We couldn’t rely on one-to-many traditional tactics. We needed to create a social first experience for digitally native Gen-Z. Meeting them on their platforms of choice: TikTok and Snapchat and encouraging them to participate through the people they know and love most.

We needed to dust off this classic icon to create new memories and future-proof the brand, connecting past and present. Create a fresh cultural role for Big Mac that enhanced relationships with a brand and community. Increase brand love with younger generations. And get people to try the Big Mac to create the next generation of fans.

Invented in 1967 the Big Mac still has the same delicious ingredients and taste. However, in Australia it wasn’t as culturally big as it once was. Whilst four generations could still list out every ingredient thanks to a 1987 jingle, Gen Z didn’t know it at all. So, we brought it back. The jingle that trended before trending was a thing. Sparking a country wide, inter-generational jingle battle.

Giving it a modern spin with a first-of-its-kind AI powered Snapchat filter and machine learning.

Rewarding people in real time with a unique code for free McDonalds if they could say-Two-All-Beef-Patties-Special-Sauce-Lettuce-Cheese-Pickles-Onions-on-a-Sesame-Seed-Bun in 4 seconds.

Every touchpoint driving people to this unique experience and rewarding them with free food and by featuring their funniest mistakes in social and DOOH. Joining generations with the shared experience of a timeless cultural jingle and renewing its relevance and utility for a chronically online Gen Z.

The average age of a Big Mac customer in Australia is 39. And 1 in 5 Gen-Zers has never had a Big Mac. So, it was no surprise when we interviewed 91 Australians across generations that one insight came to light: “Big Mac is my Dad’s burger”. Young people said it was outdated, overfamiliar, and they could only justify one if they were starving or hungover.

Meanwhile, “future nostalgia” is trending, stores packed with Y2K fashion, TV shows like Stranger Things are connecting young people with the 80s and Australians over 45 years old can not only remember their first Big Mac, but also the Big Mac jingle.

So, we decided to connect this generation to the past and inspire new love for a classic. Bringing back the Big Mac Jingle by focusing our efforts on the social media platforms that they natively use multiple times a day.

Over a 7-week campaign window we launched an interactive multichannel social first campaign. Introducing and re-introduced the Big Mac jingle to new and old fans. Firstly, teasing it’s return with the origin story of the jingle. Creating both nostalgia and intrigue. Leading into our 3-week promotional period in which our competition was live across multiple social platforms. Including a first-of-its-kind AI powered snapchat filter that analysed and rewarded people on the spot for reciting the Big Mac jingle in under 4-seconds.

Numerous touchpoints with CTA’s drove Australians to our country-wide competition including QR codes on packaging in store, TVC’s, social assets, creators, and other supporting channels. Setting off a fierce inter-generational battle.

Embracing the weird and wonderful ways our community wanted to interact with our brand, we reacted to trends, proactively creating content to directly respond to our fans. Alongside our fit-for-format, organic content, and fun jingle super-cuts.

The jingle that trended before trending was a thing, was back. Sparking a country wide, inter-generational jingle battle. With an average engagement time of 53-seconds per-user and multiple attempts of The Original Mouthful 4 second Jingle, we saw a total of more than 41 MILLION SECONDS OF JINGLING.

That’s over a year-and-a-half of back-to-back jingle time.

Across Instagram, X and Facebook we reached 2.19M, with social engagements of 25.81K (vs. average YTD performance, 3.23x and 2.45x respectively) on McDonald's owned channels. Our AR Snap lens has been used by over 1.4M Australians, spending over 10 seconds playing with it, which is 42% higher than benchmark.

45% of players beat the clock, leading to a 60% sales increase of the Big Mac Range within 3 weeks of campaign launch.

And the press noticed, with 204 pieces of coverage with an estimated reach of 17,545,969 for The Original Mouthful Jingle Challenge.